Introduction: Perelman, the Pearl of Providence / by Adam Gopnik --
Sketches and Satires. Puppets of passion: a throbbing story of youth's hot revolt against the conventions --
Those charming people: the latest report on the Weinbloom reptile expedition --
The love decoy: a story of youth in college today-awake, fearless, unashamed --
Waiting for Santy: a Christmas playlet --
Frou-frou, or the future of vertigo --
Captain future, block that kick! --
Midwinter facial trends --
Beat me, post-impressionist Daddy --
A pox on you, mine goodly host --
Button, button, who's got the blend? --
Swing out, sweet chariot --
A couple of quick ones: two portraits --
Hell in the Gabardines --
Farewell, my lovely appetizer --
Hit him again, he's sober --
Physician, steel thyself --
Take two parts sand, one part girl, and stir --
Amo, Amas, Amat, Amamus, Amatis, enough! --
Acres and pains: chapter one --
Acres and pains: chapter twelve --
Don't bring me Oscars (when it's shoesies that I need --
Mama don't want no rice --
Columbia, the crumb of the ocean --
Whenas in sulks my Julia goes --
Cloudland revisited: why, doctor, what big green eyes you have! --
Chewies the goat but flicks need hypo --
Salesman, spare that psyche --
The song is endless, but the malady lingers on --
A girl and a boy anthropoid were dancing --
Cloudland revisited: rock-a-bye, viscount, in the treetop --
Cloudland revisited: when to the sessions of sweet silent films --
No starch in the Dhoti, Sʹil vous plaît --
Cloudland revisited: the wickedest woman in Larchmont --
Swindle sheet with blueblood engrailed, arrant fibs rampant --
Cloudland revisited: I'm sorry I made me cry --
Sorry- no phone or mail orders --
Next week at the Prado: Frankie Goya plus monster cast --
You're my everything, plus city sales tax --
Eline Kleine Mothmusik --
Where do you work-a, John? --
Portrait of the artist as a young mime --
This is the forest primeval --
Revulsion in the desert --
Are you decent, Memsahib? --
Tell me clear, parachutist dear, are you man or mouse? --
Sex and the single boy --
A soft answer turneth away royalties --
Hello, central, give me that jolly old pelf --
Nobody knows the rubble I've seen/nobody knows but croesus --
Three loves had I, in assorted flavors --
Be a cat's-paw! Lose big money! --
The beauty part: a comedy in two acts --
The hindsight saga: three fragments from an autobiography. The Marx Brothers --
Selected letters. To Edmund Wilson (September 2, 1929) --
To I.J. Kapstein (October 9, 1930) --
To Groucho Marx (April 7, 1943) --
To Frances and Albert Hackett (August 14, 1949) --
To Abby Perelman (April 15, 1954) --
To Leila Hadley (August 21, 1955) --
To Leila Hadley (September 16, 1955) --
To Betsy Drake (September 28, 1955) --
To Leila Hadley (August 25, 1956) --
To Leila Hadley (November 22, 1956) --
To Paul Theroux (October 18, 1976) --
To Paul Theroux (December 24, 1976).
